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Blue Shield of California
El Dorado Hills, California · Hybrid

Pharmacist, Principal

PharmacistFull-Time

Listed compensation

$149k-$252k

The week · per this posting · weekdays assumed

Ask the employer about call expectations, weekend coverage, nights and shift pattern and time off.

Posted 26m ago · Verified live

Job Description

Your Role

The Pharmacy team provides pharmacy benefit management services and strategies to support Blue Shield affordability and membership goals. The Pharmacist, Principal of Pharmacy Line of Business (LOB) Management will report to the Sr.

Manager, Pharmacy LOB Management. In this role, you will support end-to-end pharmacy performance and the development and implementation of current and pipeline pharmacy strategies, including pharmacy product strategy and pharmacy benefit design, to advance pricing, membership growth, and retention objectives.

Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow – personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Responsibilities

Your Work

In this role, you will:

  • Develop, analyze & monitor prescription drug, medical claims, and program data to identify opportunities to improve quality and cost of healthcare and to monitor/report performance and outcomes
  • Develop project proposals for identified opportunities and support implementation
  • Serve as a BSC Pharmacy Services contact and subject matter expert to stakeholders, and manage external relationships (vendors, clients) related to assigned work
  • Serve as a primary pharmacy lead to work with Medicare and/or Commercial business units to develop and implement pharmacy products and market initiatives that align with business unit growth and profitability objectives
  • Lead and/or actively participate in cross functional processes, including executive audience forums, to brainstorm, influence and recommend pharmacy strategies and initiatives to support value proposition, annual go to market and multi-year roadmap planning
  • Provide thought leadership and pharmacy marketplace intelligence to influence product and cost of health care strategy development and prioritization
  • Monitor pharmacy program performance, marketplace and mandate requirements, and work cross functionally and coordinate with other business units such as Actuary and Product to support line of business management and develop solutions to differentiate Blue Shield of California
  • Support issue resolutions, communications, and solutions development that impact pharmacy benefit and day-to-day operations to ensure lines of business deliverables are met
  • Support Pharmacy Care Reimagined strategic initiative implementation as appropriate
  • Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Your Knowledge and Experience

  • Requires a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree
  • Requires a currently active and unrestricted California Registered Pharmacist (RPh) license
  • Requires 4 years of experience in clinical pharmacy
  • Experience working in a managed care or pharmacy benefit management setting is preferred
  • Prior experience in presenting pharmacy program recommendations, performance, value and observations to executive leadership is preferred
  • Prior experience in pharmacy benefit strategy and solutions development with understanding of pharmacy levers and marketplace requirements is preferred
  • Excellent presentation, verbal and written skills with ability to understand and convey complex ideas to audience with diverse backgrounds
  • Strong business acumen with proven experience in strategy development and planning
  • Proficiency in MS Office products, particularly in MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel

Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week.

Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

About Blue Shield of California

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun.

Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions. Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies.

At Blue Shield of California, our mission is to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable. We are transforming health care in a way that genuinely serves our nonprofit mission by lowering costs, improving quality, and enhancing the member and physician experience.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve.

We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Blue Shield is a U.S. News Best Company to work for, a Deloitte U.S. Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace. We were recognized by Fair360 as a Top Regional Company, and one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States by Points of Light. Here at Blue Shield, we strive to make a positive change across our industry and communities – join us!

Our Values

  • Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short.
  • Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, showing empathy by understanding others' perspectives.
  • Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals.

Our Workplace Model

We believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility - providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce. Our workplace model is designed around intentional in-person interaction, collaboration,

connection, creativity and flexibility:

  • For most teams, this means coming into the office two days per week.
  • Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location, out of state employees, and employees in certain member-facing roles should work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.
  • For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in-office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

The Company reserves the right to require more presence in the office based on business needs, and requirements are subject to change with periodic reviews.

Physical Requirements

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork – Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Please click here for further physical requirement detail.

Equal Employment Opportunity

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.

Qualifications

Education
Doctoral or professional degree (postgraduate degree)
Experience
5+ years of experience

Key Skills

Data analysisStakeholder managementProject managementPresentation skillsHealthcare cost management

Pharmacist Career Context

Of the 43 active Pharmacy listings this role was benchmarked against, 40% are remote, 49% have no call, 44% require no weekends — this position is remote.

The cost-of-living index for California is 110.7 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)), so the posted ~$200k midpoint carries the purchasing power of roughly $181k in an average-cost state. 63.6% of California clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

How many Pharmacy jobs are remote?
MeasureThis jobMarket
Listed pay$149k–$252kPharmacy median $160k (middle half $151k–$185k)31 comparable listings, Nov 2026
Cost-of-living adjusted pay~$181k in purchasing powerCalifornia index 110.7 (US = 100)BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)
Pharmacy listings in California594 active10,225 nationallylive on WeekdayDoc, Nov 2026
Work settingremotepeers: 40% remote · 49% no call · 44% no weekends43 benchmarked listings
Sign-on & loan repaymentnot statedCalifornia pharmacist listings (all specialties): 8% state a sign-on bonus (median $10k) · 12% offer loan repayment614 active listings, Nov 2026
New Pharmacy listings3,714 in the last 30 days3,304 the 30 days before (+12%)U.S., first seen on WeekdayDoc, Nov 2026
Pharmacy pay trend+3.6% vs prior quarter—through Oct 2026
Blue Shield of Californiasilver tier, 85/100Top Employers work-life index13 active listings
Sources: WeekdayDoc live listing index, Top Employers work-life index, BEA Regional Price Parities (2024); as of Nov 2026. Same values as the Weekday Verdict and Market Insights on this page.

Top Pharmacist Jobs

18 matches · ranked by pay

Salary Distribution

18 jobs · 15 employers
2
<$135k
7
$135k-150k
4
$150k-165k
5
$165k-180k

Annual compensation range

#1

Clinical Pharmacist, Advanced Therapeutics: Cardiometabolic and MWL (Ambulatory), 40hr, Day, (Remote)

UMass Memorial Health · Holden, Massachusetts

$99k-$178k
#2

Pharmacist I w/ $25,000 sign on bonus - Animal Health International

Patterson Companies · Sunnyside, Washington

$133k-$178k
#3

Senior Clinical Pharmacist

$126k-$174k
#4

Clinical Pharmacist I - Medicare Part D / Prior Auth (Remote | M-F, 8am-5pm Pacific)

$113k-$170k
+ 16 more · ranked by pay

Work-life snapshot

median 2.8this job 2.4
Better work-life than 40% of Pharmacy listings

Listing-based score, 0–10, across 10,061 comparable listings. Shaded area = the share scoring below this one.

  • Hybrid
  • Remote